Share this article

Lackawanna business and its manager charged with sales tax fraud

The indictment of Lackawanna’s Mid-East Enterprises Inc., doing business as the Hamburg Turnpike gas station and convenience store known as Excell Fuels, and its manager for allegedly defrauding New York State of more than $50,000 in sales tax payments, was announced Wednesday by Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

After the business was arraigned before State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia and its manager, Mogeeb Nagi, 35, of Hamburg, was arraigned before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller on second-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal tax fraud charges, Schneiderman said an Erie County grand jury voted an indictment for alleged sales tax fraud committed between June 2008 and November 2009 at the business at 2368 Hamburg Turnpike in Lackawanna.

“Anyone who uses a business to swindle the state of New York and line their own pockets must be held fully accountable,” Schneiderman said. “Sales taxes provide a critical flow of revenue to many services that many New Yorkers depend upon daily and my office will continue to take aggressive action against tax cheaters who believe they are above the law.”

The attorney general lauded the investigative team that obtained the indictment, Cydney A. Kelly, Stephen Maher, Gary Fishman and Kelly Donovan of his own Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau and the state Taxation and Finance Department’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Neither Nagi, a Town of Hamburg resident, nor attorneys for the business defendant could be reached immediately for comment.